North Mankato Changes Tobacco Age To 21 (If Mankato Does Too)

With a 3-1 vote, the North Mankato city council passed a ban on tobacco sales until age 21.

But the ordinance change won't go into effect unless their neighbors across the river in Mankato make the same change.

The vote tonight would have been 4-1, had council member James Whitlock been there.

But, as he expressed in a letter to council, he was in Rochester receiving cancer treatment that he links back to his time as a smoker.

North Mankato City Administrator John Harrenstein read the letter before the vote.

Billy Steiner was the lone 'no' vote.

After the vote, however, city staff was directed by Mayor Mark Dehen not to publish the new ordinance until Mankato passes their own, thereby keeping it from becoming official city code, saying that he expects Mankato to take up the issue in the next month or so.